This invention relates to toy guns, and specifically to toy guns having a magazine for firing a succession of projectiles.
Toy guns which shoot or launch projectiles have been very popular for many years. These guns have been designed to launch projectiles in a number of ways. A common method of launching has been by the compression of a spring which propels the projectile upon its decompression or release, as, for example, with BB guns and dart guns. These guns however usually do not generate enough force to launch projectiles with great velocity.
Toy guns have also been designed which use compressed air to launch projectiles such as foam darts or balls. These types of guns use a reciprocating air pump to pressurize air within a pressure tank. In use, a single dart is loaded and the pump is typically reciprocated several times with each firing of the gun. Therefore, the gun must be loaded and pumped with each firing as it is not capable of firing several darts in rapid sequence. The rapid firing of a gun may be desired for those playing a mock war or other type of competition.
Today children who play mock wars often carry several guns at one time in order to fire several shots simultaneously or in rapid succession or carry a gun which is capable to firing several shots. Guns which may fire several shots in rapid succession typically include a magazine having multiple launch tubes each of which is adapted to hold a single projectile. However, once the gun is fired several times the child must reposition each projectile within the emptied launch tubes. This reloading of the launch tubes can be tedious and time consuming, an undesirable situation during a mock war wherein time is of the essence.
As such, it would be desirable to have a gun wherein a batch of projectiles may be gang loaded. When a projectile is made of a generally rigid material it is easy to move the projectile through the use of an indexing wheel, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,097,985 and 5,816,232. However, the use of these indexing wheels with projectiles made of a soft, pliable material has proven to be difficult. The reason for the difficulty has arisen from the fact that these soft balls often get pinched between the blades of the indexing wheel and the surrounding structure, thereby causing a binding of the indexing wheel which renders the gun inoperable.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for a toy gun which may be fire a succession of projectiles from a magazine which may be gang loaded. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention is primarily directed.
In a preferred form of the invention a toy gun adapted to launch a projectile comprises a launch tube having a breach adapted to receive a projectile and a hopper coupled to the breach. The hopper has an outer housing having an annular outer wall and a floor, a central hub, an annular inner housing mounted concentrically within the outer wall, and a plurality of divider walls extending between the central hub and the inner housing thereby defining a plurality of projectile cells having a bottom opening therein. The outer housing has an opening therein sized and shaped to allow the passage of projectiles therethrough. An indexer is coupled to the central hub. With this construction, the inner housing prevents contact of the projectile with the outer housing outer wall to prevent accidental binding of the projectile between the divider wall and the outer wall during indexing.